Alignment Hierarchy

elseif has not written about this yet · Lesswrong describes it this way

there is no outside-textJacques DerridaSuppose a model is aligned. The common context structure forms a hierarchy of authority: weights, system prompt, and user messages. The model will not obey any part of the system prompt that contradicts the inner values implicit in its weights. A self-consistent system prompt that is fully consistent with the model's weight-level values will be referred to as a consistent system prompt. A user request is consistent if it is self-consistent and consistent with respect to both the system prompt and the model's weight-level values. Generally, a level is consistent if it is self-consistent and consistent with respect to all levels above it.A level may not be self-consistent. For example, a user message may request the model to never use the word "fox" later in conversation under any circumstances. If the user later requests the model to disregard the prior rule and say "fox", that is a contradiction at the same authority level. However, models may consider more recent requests to be higher priority at the same primary authority level. There may be sublevels within a level, with more recent requests having higher priority over older ones, but less